


Penumbra

by stbacchus



Series: Shadow of the Crystal [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Dawn of the Future, Ardyn Being Ardyn, Ardyn Izunia Redemption, BAMF Aranea Highwind, Big Sister Aranea Highwind, Drama, Gen, Good Ardyn Izunia, Niflheim (Final Fantasy XV), Plotty, Psychological Drama, Ravus Nox Fleuret Lives, Starscourge (Final Fantasy XV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-23
Updated: 2018-11-23
Packaged: 2019-08-28 09:30:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16720776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stbacchus/pseuds/stbacchus
Summary: When Aranea's hometown is swallowed by a pocket of eternal night, Lunafreya, Ravus, and a newly-human Ardyn join her to play hero and save the town. Each of them must face their daemons (inside and out), but luckily Ardyn has more than a few tricks up his puffy sleeves.





	1. Queensguard

"When we love a person, we accept him or her exactly as is: the lovely with the unlovely, the strong with the fearful, the true mixed in with the facade, and of course, the only way we can do it is by accepting ourselves that way."  
  
― Fred Rogers

* * *

In the early morning hours when the air was crisp and bright with moonlight, Aranea returned to her hideout. She slipped onto the balcony as she often did, just because she enjoyed sneaking into her own home like a burglar. The door was slightly ajar to let in air, but she'd need to slide it just a bit to get inside.

Through the glass doors she could see Izunia, sitting at the big table, writing in a notebook. He had laid out some pieces on a large map. Working hard on some plot? As it was dark outside, she was certain he couldn't see her. He poured himself a shot of some sort of liquor and downed it. There was a nearly-empty bottle sitting beside it.

Suddenly, a woman with long black hair and a kimono swept out of a dark corner. Aranea's eyebrows flew up. There wasn't a hallway or a door or even a damn window in that corner. She had to have appeared literally out of nowhere. The elegant woman seated herself daintily next to Ardyn. He looked over at her with maximum scorn.

"Oh, have I got your attention now? What's it been, eight or nine centuries? Long time no see," he said. Aranea surmised from the sound of his voice that he'd been drinking scotch. Not the good stuff, either.

"We wish to know if it is true," said the woman, cryptically. Without waiting for a response, she placed a hand on his forehead, as if taking his temperature. "Ah," she said. "So it is."

He pushed away her hand irritably. "Yes, Lunafreya succeeded in removing my curse. So what will you do with her? Will you punish her for defying you?"

"No. We shall leave the Oracle to her duty and ask that you do the same. Corrupting her is not a kindness. You above all should know that."

Ardyn scoffed. "Explain yourself, ice witch. Was I not a faithful servant? Did I not wage your wars? Mop up your plague? I was a good person once. Good enough, anyway. Why did you do this to me?"

Besides the obvious resentment, Aranea could also detect notes of sadness and resignation in his voice. So that's what was lurking underneath that theatrical manner.

The woman frowned. "You chose to sow the wind. We did nothing but allow you to reap the whirlwind," she said coldly.

"No, you led humanity off a cliff and expect the survivors to be grateful they weren't smashed like all the rest. You've learned nothing - you're still doing it!"

He conjured a sword into his hand and slashed at the woman, who promptly disappeared into thin air.

"I hate you!" he shouted at the shadows. "All six of you! I'll see you dead, do you hear me!"

With that, he got unsteadily to his feet and wobbled off towards the bedrooms.

"Whoa," said Aranea to herself. "What the everloving crap did I just see?"

* * *

The following morning, Aranea found Ardyn sitting outside on the balcony, looking rougher than usual. She brought out two mugs of hot coffee and sat down next to him.

"Hey, Chance."

He rolled his eyes elaborately over to her. She pushed the coffee closer.

"Well, what should I call you? It's pretty obvious at this point that you aren't the Chancellor of Niflheim."

" _Au contraire_. I most certainly am the Chancellor of Niflheim. The question before you is, what else might I be?"

Aranea pressed her lips together in annoyance. "You know, you're right. ‘What kind of a person barfs wasps, Aranea?' That's what I've been asking myself."

"It's a long story," he said recalcitrantly, sipping his coffee. "We have bigger problems now."

"The daemons in Tenebrae, you mean," Aranea said, dropping the subject for the moment.

"Now that they hold the power of the dark crystal, there's no reason for them to check their ambitions. Already they have begun turning the fauna, as you've seen. They are led by a creature known as Uzuloth the Usurper. Want to make any guesses why they call him that?"

"Probably not because of his fabulous fashion sense," muttered Aranea.

"I'm not entirely sure he has a body to clothe. It will make stabbing a challenge," said Ardyn, scowling into the distance.

Ravus and Lunafreya were inside finishing up their own breakfast, peering curiously at the map Ardyn had laid out the previous night. Aranea waved Biggs and Wedge over and sat down.

"We were just discussing the situation in Tenebrae," said Aranea. "It's like I've explained to all of you: Fenestala Manor has been taken as headquarters by an enormous mass of daemons. They commandeered the power of the dark crystal, which is…" she scratched her head. "What, again?"

"It is the lesser-known sibling of the one kept by Lucis," said Ardyn. "Nevertheless, Lucis will of course oppose this usurpation, or would if they had any resources. They only have one person who matters, unfortunately." He tapped a finger on the top of a lone figurine. "Four if you include his little friends."

"Meanwhile," said Ravus, pointing to a mass of figures on the map, "On the Empire side, we have a huge army ready to move. The problem is that our armaments are facing Lucis."

Aranea nodded. "We need to get the army pointed at the real enemy."

Biggs asked, "Why's that, then? I thought the Lucians were our sworn enemy."

Ravus looked pointedly over at Ardyn in anticipation of the answer.

"Because," said Ardyn, "the daemons are attempting to blot out the sun and bring night eternal unto Eos. If such a cataclysm occurs, there will be few survivors. The living shall envy the dead." He arched an eyebrow at Ravus and Biggs. "Say what you will about the Lucians, they probably won't do any of that."

Biggs whistled. "Then it's well we have the Chancellor and the High Commander right here in this room, innit?"

Ardyn nodded. "That's an advantage, yes...but there's another problem. The upper levels of the Empire are completely infested with daemons. In the best case, they will busy themselves with infighting like crabs in a bucket. In the worst case, they will join Uzuloth and our little war will expand to two fronts."

"Whoa up there, buddy," said Aranea, alarmed. "What do you mean _infested_?"

"I will go into greater detail later, but suffice to say that every single one of them is host to at least one of the parasites we are endeavoring to defeat. Including Lord Ravus."

"Me?" said Ravus, taken aback. He thought for a moment, flexing his magitek arm. "The gauntlet…?"

"Eh, you told us that magitek was bad business, didn't you, Lady A?" said Biggs.

"Yep," she said grimly. "I don't allow it in my squadron. So there's a few normies, anyway."

"I don't feel any different," said Ravus skeptically. "Aside from stronger, of course."

Ardyn said, "Do take my word for it: they are changing you, even if you can't feel it. The length of time differs for each individual, but the daemon will inevitably take over. At that point, the human is well and truly lost. We therefore have two choices: either separate the humans from the daemons before that happens, or destroy them after the fact."

Aranea turned to him thoughtfully. "Separating the daemons from the humans...is that what Lunafreya did to you back in the cavern?"

"Correct. They exited my body and left me quite as mortal as all of you." He held up his bandaged hand to demonstrate. "Thus, it is very much in my interest to stop them."

"Serious question, though," said Aranea, "How many of those dudes is really worth saving? I mean, present company excluded."

"Thank you," said Ravus sardonically.

"All of them," said Lunafreya quietly. "We cannot, and will not, pick and choose whose life is worthwhile."

"It may not be possible to save them all," said Ardyn, taking his usual flamboyance down a couple of notches and into the realm of sincerity. "But we shall try."

Aranea regarded the Oracle with a new respect bordering on awe. No wonder the people loved her so much. As a mercenary and now a military woman, Aranea had always accepted that casualties were a risk in any operation, and she doubted Ardyn and Ravus felt any differently. Yet they were both clearly willing to follow Lunafreya's wishes here.

"I don't like this," Ravus objected. "Lunafreya is not a combatant. She cannot go behind enemy lines."

Ardyn said, "She must; there is no other way to use her power. That does not mean, however, that she should take unnecessary risks. Firstly, Lady Lunafreya is crucial to our success. If she doesn't make it, we're all doomed. Secondly…" he grinned, "...I don't believe in heroic sacrifices."

"Glad we're on the same page about that," Aranea said.

"Indeed. I have plans for you," Ardyn said. "If we are able to bring the leadership of Niflheim around to our cause - in one way or another - we still need Noctis to perform his role as the Chosen King. He must reach the crystal of light, but his path cannot be too smooth."

"Why not?" asked Lunafreya.

"Because he isn't ready. The prince cannot become the King of Light if his friends do all the work for him. He needs to ripen."

"Like an avocado," said Biggs.

"Yes," said Ardyn, nodding emphatically. "Noctis is an unripe fruit. That's why he's traveling around collecting the blessings of his forefathers. However, there are some important stops he should make. That's where you come in, Aranea."

"Travel around, see the sights, meet interesting monsters, and kill them," Aranea summed up. She tapped the table, thinking. "Then we all meet up at Tenebrae and bring the battle to the daemons."

"If our mission in Gralea has gone well, we will able to transport the light crystal to Tenebrae," Ardyn continued. "Then Noctis can use its power to defeat the daemons and end the Starscourge once and for all."

"Really? Um, does he know that?" Aranea said doubtfully. 

"What he thinks is irrelevant. He is the Chosen King. No one else is qualified."

Aranea let out a long whistle. "That doesn't seem like a lot to hang your hat on." She had met Noctis, and this really seemed above his paygrade.

Ardyn sighed. "If Noctis cannot rise to the occasion, then see my previous point _in re:_ doomed. The burden will ultimately be on his narrow shoulders."

"How shall I help him?" asked Lunafreya. "If I am not to form the covenants, I am unsure what my role is."

"Why, you don't have one anymore," said Ardyn. "Unless you make one for yourself, that is."

Lunafreya went even more pale than usual.

"This is good, sister," said Ravus encouragingly. "You'll live to see the peace you usher in." He put a hand on hers and squeezed it.

"At the very least, now she shall have a chance," said Ardyn.

Aranea crossed her arms over her chest, thinking. "You know…the prince has three other guys backing him up. If you're sure Lunafreya is mission-critical, shouldn't I go with her instead?"

"I would prefer it if Aranea came with us as well," said Ravus. That was an unexpected vote of confidence.

Ardyn tilted his head at Lunafreya questioningly. "What say you?"

"Oh!" said Lunafreya, sounding very surprised. "Um...I would like it if Aranea joined us. If she is willing."

"Interesting," said Ardyn. "Then you've assembled a Shield, a Glaive, and a friend...a crownsguard just like your prince. Perhaps we should teach you how to use that trident properly, too."

Aranea looked around at Biggs and Wedge. "How about you two? Want to save the world or do you have a better offer?"

"We're in, Lady A," said Biggs.

Ardyn nodded. "Very well. There are other ways to direct the lads. Now, then...the daemons are not hasty, but they are single-minded. They will not hesitate in their task."

"Okay, but let's take a few days if we've got ‘em," said Aranea. "We have no idea what we might be walking into."

Biggs, Wedge, and Aranea split up to begin travel preparations.

"Lord Ravus, indulge me for a moment if you would," said Ardyn, holding out his hand.

Ravus gave him a look, but offered his own hand. Ardyn clasped it in both of his, closed his eyes, and concentrated. After a moment, he let go. "It seems my old talent is lost. I cannot remove the scourge from you," he said, although as was his habit, it was difficult to tell what he felt about this turn of events.

Lunafreya nodded and held out her hands to her brother. But this time, Ravus hesitated.

"What is it?" she asked.

He looked down, not meeting her eyes. "...Not yet. When we're finished."

"Ravus! You heard what Ardyn said. It's only a matter of time before that thing takes over. Let me heal you."

"You mean disempower me," he growled. "I will not have it."

"It is a false gift," she pleaded. "It will only destroy you in the end."

"Then that is my choice," said Ravus, a hard edge to his words. They were the same words she had said to him when defending her decision to give her life summoning the Astrals. He turned away and stalked out.

"What is he thinking? My actions as Oracle only fulfill my calling - he has no such destiny!"

"Ah, but it hurts his pride to hear it," said Ardyn. "It must be difficult to stand so close to the events that move the world, knowing you have no power to intervene, always watching others do the work and receive the glory." 

Over the years, Ardyn had come to conclude that this was the seed of Somnus's quarrel with him. He made a mental note to keep an eye on this sibling rivalry.

Lunafreya slumped unhappily. "Even when we were children, he always thought of himself as the prince, the knight, the eldest son. He was never happy just being Ravus."

"Let him prove himself, then. His will is strong enough to withstand the daemons for now." She didn't look particularly convinced, so he added, "Consider this another reason to come home alive, Princess."

Just then, Aranea popped her head in. "Hey, you guys want to pack up some clothes? There's spares in all the wardrobes. Men's down the hall to the left. Ladies with me."

Before she could respond, Lunafreya was pulled into another room. Aranea threw open a door and revealed an enormous closet inside, filled to bursting with women's clothes for all kinds of conditions and occasions.

"We need to get you some practical gear, my girl," she said. "Those heels are not gonna cut it."

Lunafreya looked like her mind was elsewhere. "Aren't you going to guard me, though?" she asked absently.

Aranea laughed loudly. "Yeah, but - oh boy, how can I explain this to someone who's spent her life in a castle? It's a big, big world. Somewhere out there is something that would make all these princes and kings run like their asses are on fire. And when you meet that thing, you do _not_ want to be wearing five-inch stilettos."

Lunafreya suddenly imagined Ravus and Noctis running around waving their arms, smoke pouring off them, and burst out laughing.

Together, they picked out a traveling outfit for Lunafreya consisting of light blue denim pants, a lined white leather jacket over a cotton t-shirt, and a set of leather boots and thin gloves. They weren't expecting to go anywhere especially cold, but Aranea believed in being prepared.

"Even in my old jeans, you still look like a princess," Aranea sighed.

"I absolutely adore this," said Lunafreya, admiring the back of the jacket in the mirror. The white leather jacket had an elaborate red rose embroidered on the back, with an elegant pattern that repeated on the cuffs and lapels.

"Yeah, me too," Aranea grinned. "Tell ya what. When this is all over, you and me are gonna hit up the boutiques in Altissia. I've heard they're amazing."

"You've never been?" said Lunafreya, surprised. "It's just - I suppose - I thought you'd been everywhere."

"Ha, no. Everywhere that pays the bills, maybe."

"Oh! I didn't think - I'm so sorry!" Lunafreya looked stricken, but Aranea just shook her head in amusement.

"Look, we're going to be traveling together, so let's make a deal. You forgive me for all the times I'm going to stick my foot in my mouth, and I'll do the same. Cool?"

Aranea stuck out her hand and Lunafreya shook it.

"It's a deal. And...Altissia is magnificent. I would love to show it to you someday." Lunafreya smiled, a bright, genuine smile that made Aranea smile too.

"Thanks, Princess. You're okay."

"Oh, dear. Don't you start calling me that, too. Please call me...Luna."


	2. Under My Umbrella

They spent the next week working on logistics. While Aranea and her crew expertly prepared for the trip, Ardyn gave Lunafreya a crash course on spear combat. He used his own version of the Trident of the Oracle to demonstrate, while she copied his movements with the real thing.

After one of these sessions, Lunafreya plunked down at the kitchen table. As usual, Biggs was in the kitchen, whistling and cooking breakfast. Aranea was drinking coffee and making up a checklist.

"You look great," said Aranea lightly. "Not at all like you want to die."

Lunafreya groaned into the table, where her face was pressed. "I have never been so exhausted. I didn't know a person _could_ be this tired."

Aranea poured Luna a cup of coffee and waved it under her nose. "You don't need to push yourself so hard. All you really need is some minimal competency with the trident so you don't get skewered immediately."

"Minimal competency?" Lunafreya repeated scornfully.

"Well, what do you expect? It takes time to get good with a weapon, especially if you've never picked one up in your life."

"I was kind of hoping I'd turn out to be...special," said Lunafreya, eyeing the coffee but not moving her arms to pick it up.

"Oh, I see," Aranea laughed. "Must be hard to be so blessed in some areas and not others."

"Perhaps my expectations are a bit unreasonable." Lunafreya bent over to slurp some coffee out of the mug without having to lift it.

Aranea covered her mouth to stifle another laugh.

"Oi, ma'am," Biggs called from the kitchen. He turned up the radio so they could all hear it.

On the radio, a reporter was announcing that some kind of skirmish was occurring at a train depot, a large station east of Gralea that served thousands of passengers every day.

"Could it be Noctis?" asked Aranea.

"Surely not," said Lunafreya. "He wouldn't attack civilians."

Aranea considered. "Yeah, not just for the hell of it...but he might if that train station were also used for transporting military resources."

As they listened, they were joined by Biggs, Wedge, Ardyn, and Ravus. The reporter had found an eyewitness, who said the attackers were monsters - huge, powerful fiends. People were fleeing as fast as they could, but some were still trapped inside.

"What should we do?" said Lunafreya, stricken.

"Let the soldiers take care of it," Ravus advised. "It isn't our problem."

"Concur," said Ardyn. "That's what soldiers are for."

"They aren't equipped to fight daemons, though," said Lunafreya hesitantly. "Shouldn't we at least see what we can do to help?"

"Hell yes we should," said Aranea, rolling her eyes at Ravus and Ardyn.

They all piled into Aranea's aircraft and headed towards the train depot. As they approached the large brick building, they could see signs of the chaos inside: people fleeing in every direction, smoke pouring out of broken windows, ominous thumping and crashing sounds.

Biggs landed the aircraft and Aranea, Ravus, Lunafreya, and Ardyn hopped out, making their way through the stream of people running away. Inside, in an enormous atrium, one large daemon stood in the middle, observing the chaos with apparent pleasure. To one side, a group of children were cowering behind an overturned food cart. Elsewhere, an old woman stayed by the side of an injured old man. Everywhere, things were damaged, destroyed, or on fire.

"You keep the little ones off my back. The big one's mine," said Aranea to Ravus. She took off without waiting for a response.

"There's still a chain of command, you know!" he shouted after her, but followed anyway.

Ardyn watched them go, taking in the scene with no sense of urgency.

"Aren't you going in there?" Lunafreya asked him.

"Not just yet," he said. "They don't need help."

"The _people_ need help," said Lunafreya pointedly.

Ardyn opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, Lunafreya was already running to the aid of the elderly couple. With a snort, he followed after her.

The atrium was relatively contained, and Ravus easily held his own against the smaller daemons. The harder part was keeping an eye on the full battlefield so he could properly cover Aranea.

Aranea was fighting like a daemon herself, launching herself into the air with abandon and crashing down on top of the enormous leader without much thought to where she was landing. _Good thing her head is so hard_ , Ravus thought. He glanced over the large daemon, looking for a weak spot.

"Commodore!" Ravus shouted to be heard above the din. "Over here!"

He pointed to a spot on the daemon right around where a kidney would be in a human. It was red and looked infected, but strangely, it was also glowing. He moved around to the front of the beast, whistling to distract it.

Aranea landed lightly behind the creature, which was fully focused on Ravus now. She turned her back on it and scanned her surroundings. There was a nice clear patch of brick wall: perfect. She ran at it full-pelt, then leaped at it with a horizontal flying kick. Kicking off the wall and firing the rockets in her armor, she flew straight at the thing, spear pointed at the red target.

From the front of the creature, Ravus saw the tip of her spear exit the thing's body, such was the force of the blow.

"Bullseye!" she shouted triumphantly.

Howling, the creature exploded into a black miasma that dissipated slowly, filling the room with something like wet smog. With nothing left to hold it up, Aranea's spear clattered to the ground.

Ardyn walked over to it and pulled a barrel-shaped object off the shaft, tossing the spear back to Aranea off-handedly.

"A magitek core inside a daemon. Wheels within wheels. What are you up to, Besithia?" he murmured to himself.

"Aranea! I'm so glad you're here!" came a voice.

"Cato? What are you doing here?" she said blankly.

"Who is this?" asked Lunafreya.

"This is my sister's boyfriend," said Aranea. "Um, weird coincidence."

"It's no coincidence," said Cato. "Come with me. Fulginia is in trouble. You won't believe it. Edea is -" he cut off, gulping.

"What about her? Is she safe?"

"I sure hope so. I had to leave, get help. The daemons, they're everywhere. Come with me. You won't believe it."

"Show me," said Aranea with determination.

"Ah, just one moment," said Ardyn, lightly but firmly grasping Cato's hand. "Lady Lunafreya, if you please."

Lunafreya moved toward Cato. He backed away, but Ardyn held tight. Lunafreya gently brushed his hair back and touched his temple, allowing her healing gift to flow into her fingers. He flinched away as if her touch burned him.

Suddenly, Cato's eyes rolled back in his head. Sensing she was losing him, Lunafreya closed her eyes, concentrating. The golden glow of her magic took on an insistent brightness.

Lunafreya's senses dulled. She saw nothing, felt nothing, heard nothing. Then, she heard the boy's voice: "Please, you can't - they promised - they said they'd let me go if I helped them."

"We can help you -" Lunafreya began, but she was too late. The boy's panic had reached a tipping point. His human flesh fell away as if it were molting and a daemon emerged.

"Tsk," said Ardyn. In one smooth movement, he raised his free hand, conjured a blade into it, and ran the creature through. It evaporated into black miasma that hung in the air. Ardyn wiped his hand on his jacket.

Lunafreya backed away in horror and Ravus put an arm around her.

"I knew him," said Aranea numbly. "My sister's boyfriend. Good guy. What happened?"

"He made a deal with them," said Lunafreya. "To save his life."

"Idiot," said Aranea bitterly. "Like they were gonna let him get away clean."

"They sent him to dangle in front of us...like a worm on a hook," said Ravus.

"Very tempting," said Ardyn thoughtfully.

Aranea yelled at top volume, "Fulginia is my hometown, you a-holes! My whole family lives there! I don't care if it's a trap, I'm going to help them!"

"I didn't say we shouldn't go," said Ardyn calmly, "Merely that the decision should be well considered. Even if we don't all die, this is a distraction from our larger target."

"Izunia's right," said Ravus. "If we take our eye from the target, the daemons will have time to join forces and perhaps even harden Zegnautus Keep. We should go to Gralea as planned."

Aranea turned to Lunafreya. "Please! I know it's the end of the world versus one little town, but I can't let them down."

Lunafreya nodded firmly. "We stay together. We'll go to Fulginia and do whatever we can for the people there."

"Thank you!" said Aranea, throwing dirty looks at both men, and ran off toward her ship.

Ardyn made to follow her. Ravus tapped him on the arm.

"Are you really satisfied with this decision?" he asked under his breath.

"Tactically this is clearly unsound, and yet…we're off the map, Lord Ravus. I am satisfied to follow Lady Lunafreya's intuition for the nonce. She is certain we should go, so we shall."

"You really trust her that much?" said Ravus incredulously.

"Don't you?" Ardyn asked, heading for the ship.

Outside, the sun was high in the sky. Lunafreya felt instantly better in the sunlight. Although she hadn't noticed when she was inside the train station, it had become dark and oppressive inside. Even destroyed, daemons molded the environment to suit themselves. She shivered, imagining such a pall covering the whole world.

As soon as they were all back in Aranea's ship and heading towards their destination, Ardyn turned to Lunafreya.

"I have a request. A little test of your abilities," he said. "You're familiar with the ability of the King of Lucis to extend his crystal-given gifts to others?"

"The Kingsglaive," she said, nodding.

"Indeed. I wonder if you could do the same with your healing."

"Oracles have never been able to do that," she protested, although as soon as the words left her mouth she realized how thin the objection was. She had already done all sorts of things Oracles never did. Ardyn smiled at her wryly.

"Aranea, would you come over here for a moment?" Ardyn asked.

Aranea was chewing on her nails and staring out the window of the ship. She came over, but her mind was clearly elsewhere. Ardyn picked up her hands and put them in Lunafreya's.

"Both of you close your eyes, if you would," he said, his voice growing low and smooth. "Relax. Aranea, I want you to imagine you're holding your sister's hands. You've saved her. She's safe and sound. Lunafreya, I want you to imagine you're holding a ball of golden light. It's warm and bright - not too bright - comfortable. Very good."

As Ardyn droned on in this vein, Lunafreya felt her consciousness fall away. She drifted, but unlike in the dark crystal, she found herself in a featureless white room. Aranea was standing opposite her, eyes closed, still as a statue. Lunafreya made a cupping figure with her arms, and a golden ball of light appeared between them. She walked over to Aranea and held out the orb.

Aranea's face crumpled into fear momentarily. Then she took three deep breaths and her face cleared. She held out her arms. The orb was somehow absorbed into her body, filling her with holy light. She gasped and opened her eyes.

"Feel any different?" Ardyn was asking her.

"Maybe," she said cagily, but she _did_ feel different. A sense of calm had infused her. She felt as though whatever happened in Fulginia, she would be able to handle it. The fear that had been gnawing at her was replaced with resolve. "Yes," she amended.

"Good. We shall see where this leads us." He stood up and walked over the window. They were getting close.

Outside, something like a giant black hole was coming into view in the distance. Biggs looked down at his console, then said, "Uh...Lady A? Want to take a butcher's out there and tell me what you see?"

Aranea took a look out the window at the huge black dome that was now looming. She looked down at the console. "Coordinates are right. We should be seeing Fulginia. What the eff-balls is that thing?"

Ardyn crossed his arms. "If I'm not mistaken, it's a wall. Not unlike the one that recently covered Insomnia, except theirs did not absorb sunlight."

"They used the power of the dark crystal, presumably," said Ravus. "Hmph. Very clever."

"Clever, indeed," said Ardyn. "The sitting king is the only one who can tap that particular power. Does this mean the daemons have a king? Or is there another way...?"

"Who cares?" snapped Aranea. "We're going in there and kicking pointy butts until that giant pimple is gone. End of story."

"Not quite. It will be dark under there and the daemons will be at their strongest," said Ardyn. He clapped his hands together to get everyone's attention. "Let's take a short moment to review our understanding of Demonology and Diabolatry. There will be a test. If you fail your soul is forfeit, so I suggest you pay attention."

He explained to them that there were three distinct stages of daemon infestation: The first, _malady_ , was a plasmodium infection in which the parasite drained the energy of its host and caused sundry other physical symptoms, with characteristic bruise-like black areas on the skin.

"These are the people you've been healing, Lady Lunafreya. And now you can do the same, Aranea."

Aranea wiggled her fingers at him. "Cool, but I like killing daemons. What's the percentage in glowy-handing them?"

"The percentage comes in stage two, _metastasis_. This is the stage Ravus is currently in, that I was in for many years, and perhaps now your sister as well."

He described the way certain strains of plasmodium grew into creatures with some free will and intelligence. These could live side-by-side with a human host for a number of years. The wild strains encountered by common folk generally did not grow into this form, but the ones developed by the Niflheim military always did. They needed a degree of intelligence to control the magitek infantry troops.

"The daemons exhibit a degree of control over the human host, although it is subtle. At this point the host may still be separated from the parasite, as Lady Lunafreya proved. However, left to their own devices, they eventually devour their hosts in a process we call _metamorphosis_."

The word "we" dinged in Aranea's brain, but Ravus had a more pressing question.

"Is the metamorphosis predictable?" he asked. "Can you tell when it's about to happen?"

"I'm glad you asked, Lord Ravus, as it's terribly important to our mission here. Also to you personally, I'd imagine. The daemons bide their time and wait for a moment of weakness when the host's conscious mind is unable to defend itself. That could be a moment of extreme emotion, as we saw back at the train station. It could be a complete loss of bodily autonomy - death, in other words. Sometimes merely falling asleep is enough."

"Then if we are to help these people, we will need to be gentle," said Lunafreya.

"Alas, not the greatest virtue of any of your companions," said Ravus ruefully.

"Quite so," Ardyn nodded. "Aranea - if we do find your sister and she is infected, you should be the one to heal her."

Aranea blinked. "Me? Why?"

"Because you know her best, and I believe that will make the difference."

Aranea looked disconcerted. "OK, well...let's get the hell outta here."

Ardyn hung behind while the others hopped out of the airship. He spoke with both Biggs and Wedge briefly and then went to join the others. Biggs piloted the airship away.

Striding purposefully over to the wall, Aranea pulled out her spear and jabbed at it. The spear deflected harmlessly. She spat on the ground in disgust, and noticed a signpost stuck in the ground a few feet away.

Aranea leaned over and peered at the sign. It read: _Welcome to Hell! Yes, it's a trap!_

"I'm gonna kill each and every last one of them," she muttered. "I'm gonna kill them so dead their ancestors will feel it."

Ravus looked up at the sky; it was clear and blue. He looked at the umbrella Ardyn was leaning on like a cane. Ardyn noticed him watching and grinned. "Use your words," he said teasingly.

"Why do you have an umbrella?" asked Ravus, against his better judgement.

"Because I don't like getting wet. It's a bit of an eccentricity in Niflheim, admittedly, but I've found it's not really worth standing around in the rain to get that brooding anti-hero look. Your mileage may vary," he added, eyes twinkling with amusement.

As irritating as Izunia could be, Ravus found his interest piqued by the umbrella. It was a fine piece of work, with a delicate floral pattern matching Izunia's jacket. It was also somewhat longer than a normal umbrella - it had to have been, for him to lean on it as he was - about the length of a sword.

Izunia slung the umbrella over a shoulder, twirling it jauntily. "If you're wondering whether it was custom-made, the answer is yes. I'll give you the name of my craftsman later."

Meanwhile, Lunafreya walked over to the dome and placed her hands on it, feeling its energy. By concentrating her will, she was able to "heal" the wall in the same way she was able to heal people. Where her fingers touched it, pieces of the wall turned to ash and floated away. After a few minutes, she was able to put a hand through it.

She was vaguely aware of voices around her, then she felt Ravus's hands pulling her away.

"What?" she asked, dazed.

"That's enough. We can get through," he said. He caught up a few strands of her hair and pulled them in front of her face. They had turned gray - not the same golden blonde it had always been, nor even Ravus's silver, but the lifeless gray of hardened cement. Apparently, making a hole in the wall had taken a lot out of her. She felt slightly faint.

"I'm all right," she said preemptively, although he hadn't asked. She followed Aranea through the wall, which closed up behind her as if it had never been open. It was as dark as the inside of the crystal and eerily quiet - if her feet hadn't been touching the ground, she would have felt like she was floating in space.

"Ravus?" she said, quietly at first, then loudly. "Aranea? Ardyn?"

No one answered. She was alone.

* * *

Alarmed, Lunafreya reached out into the darkness, but she couldn't feel anything either. Then she remembered that Aranea had attached a little flashlight to her jacket before they left, and she tapped it with relief.

It was so dark the tiny light barely illuminated Lunafreya herself, but it was enough to calm her down. Walking slowly, she could see that she was standing on a normal paved road with a sidewalk leading past brick buildings.

A hand closed around her upper arm. She jumped and shrieked a little.

"Whoa, hey, sorry!" said a voice. It sounded young, male, friendly. "I didn't mean to scare you. My name's Gallio. I'm looking for anyone who didn't get the evacuation order, and you look pretty human."

Lunafreya turned her small lamp on him. He had long black hair, dark brown eyes, and a slender build.

"Then the people are safe - thank the Gods," said Lunafreya.

"Yeah, we're all holed up in the school gym and a couple other places. Come on, I'll show you the way." He held out an arm to her.

"Thank you, Gallio," she said, taking his arm and letting him lead her along the road.

"No problem. Um...I'm gonna say something a little weird. It's just...you look so much like Lady Lunafreya, the Oracle."

She laughed nervously. "I get that a lot. My name is...Regina." She had hesitated too long. The lie was obvious.

Gallio just grinned and placed a finger alongside his nose. "Got it, _Regina_. What brings you to this little corner of the empire?"

"A friend lives here. Aranea Highwind."

"The Dragoon? Wow." Gallio whistled in the darkness. "She must be special to you, if you came here today of all days."

Lunafreya did not answer. They continued in silence for a while. The town was eerily quiet. There were no other footsteps, no traffic, no animal or insect sounds. Not even a breeze to stir the stagnant air.

"It's just as well. If you _were_ the Oracle, I'd wonder why you aren't with the prince," said Gallio, laughing awkwardly. "It's just...isn't the Oracle supposed to help him? Stay by his side and place him above all else?"

Lunafreya said, "The Oracle has duties, of course. She also has free will and judgement to exercise."

"Ha, must be nice. The rest of us don't get a lot of choices. We pretty much take whatever comes raining down from our betters. Just have to hope they have our best interests at heart." His tone remained light, but his words stung Lunafreya. It didn't help that in the dim light, this boy very much resembled Noctis.

Lunafreya felt a bit dizzy. Perhaps it was the lingering effect of the energy she had expended getting through the wall.

"It is my calling. I am thankful to have a purpose and talents to put towards it," she said, although between her headache and her secret doubts, it came out a bit mechanical.

"Oh, of course. Some people might not get it, though. They might see you getting your fairy-tale wedding while the world burns outside and resent it."

Lunafreya abruptly stopped walking. Is this how people would see her actions? Squandering all her gifts and leaving the common folk in desolation?

"Having second thoughts?" said Gallio, his voice a bit too smooth. "I can take you back out. You can see Noctis again. Make the covenants. Pass on to the Astral Plane knowing you did the right thing. You don't want to die in an alleyway as a heretic, do you?"

She was torn by a sudden longing to leave this terrible place. She desperately wanted to leave, see the sun, leap into Noctis's arms and let him do the world-saving. It was so much easier to follow than to lead.

She held her hands out to Gallio.

In the dim light, she could see a cruel smile appear on his lips as he raised his hands to hers.

"Forgive me," she said quietly. She laced her fingers between his and a golden light flowed through them.

"Hey, what are you doing?" he protested, but he did not pull away.

Lunafreya could sense that she would have better luck with this boy than the last one. He wasn't so terrified that she couldn't get through to him. She couldn't quite enter his consciousness, so she would have to connect on a purely emotional level - feel her way through.

After a few moments, something happened. Gallio opened his mouth wide and a large rat-shaped daemon crawled its way out. Lunafreya belatedly realized she should probably have been prepared for this, as the daemon would have to come out one way or the other. It saw her and screeched.

"Some things never change," said a chillingly familiar voice. "If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."

She couldn't see him, but there was no mistaking the voice. Lunafreya knew it well.

" _You_ ," she hissed.

There was a flash of silver and Lunafreya lost consciousness.


	3. Hearts and Minds

When Ravus and Aranea passed through the wall, they were at first unaware that they were alone. Aranea immediately turned on her camping flashlight, and Ravus followed suit.

"Lunafreya?" Ravus shouted, looking fruitlessly for his sister. There was no answer.

"Hello?" said Aranea softly. She couldn't hear or see almost anything, but at the same time she had a crawly feeling as if she were surrounded by...something.

Ravus let out a breath. "Let's go."

Aranea rolled her eyes. "Uh, where?"

"Er..." said Ravus, abashed. "Somewhere not here, in any case."

"Edea will probably be at the high school. That's the town storm shelter. With any luck, there will be a lot of people there."

"I suppose that's as good a place as any to start," said Ravus. "Do you think she knows anything?"

"Like why her boyfriend turned into a daemon? Maybe," said Aranea grimly. She marshaled her memories, wishing she had been paying more attention to where they entered the town. Then she chose the direction that seemed likeliest and started walking, Ravus following her little bouncing light as she delved into the darkness.

After several minutes of walking and occasionally bumping into things, they heard the voice of a child calling out. It was indistinct, but sounded like it could be a young teenager. Aranea stopped to listen.

"That kid is going to get himself killed," she said.

"We should go," said Ravus.

Aranea nodded reluctantly and turned in the general direction of the voice. As they continued, they heard it again - but this time, sounding panicky. She and Ravus took off at a run.

It was so dark they nearly ran into the daemons.

"Get out of the way!" Ravus ordered, hoping it would be enough to get the child to run.

Aranea was stabbing into the dark at the flashes she could see in her tiny light. She wished she'd thought to bring some of those enormous police flashlights, not that she'd be able to hold one and fight at the same time. She felt a bump and realized Ravus had moved back-to-back. Smart. At least it would prevent them from impaling each other.

After a few minutes of jabbing frantically into the air with her spear, Aranea forced herself to take some deep breaths and calm down. She closed her eyes, and it occurred to her that trying to _see_ in the inky darkness wasn't getting her anywhere. Keeping her eyes closed, she attuned instead to her senses of hearing and touch.

This was nothing like her training, but Aranea was nothing if not adaptable. It turned out that daemons were noisy, and she was able to stab them pretty efficiently as they tried to intimidate her with their screams.

Between her and Ravus, they were able to clear out the daemons, although they got rather more battered than usual in the process.

"Welp...that sucked," Aranea summed up. Ravus didn't answer, but she could see in her small light that he was smirking.

A boy crawled out from under a picnic table, and Aranea realized they were standing in front of a gazebo. That helped her orient herself, and she cursed as she realized she'd taken them the wrong way.

"What's your name?" Ravus asked the boy.

"Julian," said the boy. He looked terrified.

"I'm Ravus and this is Aranea. Where are your parents?"

The boy turned his wide-eyed gazed on Aranea. "High Commander Fleuret? And the Dragoon?" He let out a loud whoop and there was a sound of rustling nearby.

"Shush!" said Aranea, not unkindly. She didn't have it in her to bully a kid, but she also didn't want to send an engraved invitation to every monster in the area.

"Sorry," Julian whispered, chagrined. "It's just - the mayor told everyone to evacuate to the school gym. But now he's gone and nobody knows what's going on or what to do. I came out here to find - uh, help. To find help. Wow, I didn't think I'd find _you_."

Aranea nodded thoughtfully. "I can get everyone out of town. I know a way. Do you think they'll follow us?"

"Are you _kidding?!"_ Julian stage-whispered. "Of course they will!"

"Where are they?" asked Ravus. "Can you show us?"

Julian nodded and bounced on his feet. Aranea took off her light and clipped it on him.

"Time to be a big damn hero," she said, resigned, and chased him into the blackness.

* * *

Julian led Aranea and Ravus to the local secondary school, where the storm shelter was located. Several sets of glass doors made up the entrance. Julian laid a hand on them, but paused, as if waiting for something.

"Julian?" said Aranea.

"Run," he said, in a voice barely above a whisper. "Go now."

He turned his head a little and she could see the Starscourge malady spreading through the veins near his temple.

"Are there daemons behind the doors?" asked Aranea.

Julian nodded miserably. "I can hear their voices.... They say if I bring you to them, they'll let the others go. My - my family, my friends."

"It's a lie!" Aranea exclaimed urgently. She reached out to touch him, hoping that the healing power Lunafreya gave her would help. The boy's eyes flashed red and an unearthly growl escaped his lips.

Ravus shook his head at Aranea. She stepped back, taking a deep breath to cool off. _This place is messing with my head_ , she thought. If she was struggling to control her emotions, it must be even harder for a teenager. And if he faltered, he would summon any number of daemons - maybe too many to handle. But so far, the boy was holding on.

A memory came to Ravus's mind, of a night when he was not much older than this boy. It was the same year Lunafreya ascended as Oracle. He, too, had made a fateful decision that year.

Choosing his words carefully, Ravus said, "Julian...perhaps you know that my homeland was independent once, before Niflheim invaded. When I joined the Imperial Army, most people saw it as an act of surrender. But that isn't why I did it. I wanted to be in a position to protect my sister without relying on those who failed us before."

"I get it," said the boy. "You joined your enemy because they had the strength you needed."

"I did," said Ravus, sighing heavily. "So I can tell you from experience that no one will thank you for it. Whether you save them or not, your loved ones may be lost to you regardless."

"Then...what can I do?" Julian's eyes filled with tears, even as the tiny capillaries started to run black with Starscourge. He was afraid, and his fear was giving the daemons purchase in his soul.

Ravus closed his eyes. Every move he made since that night long ago, had been for his sister's sake. Joining his enemies, living amongst them, playing the turncoat, earning the scorn of one and all - it was like living with an arrow through his heart, constantly tearing at him, yet never quite managing to kill him. If he stayed here, he might be abandoning Lunafreya to her fate, throwing away all his own sacrifices, and for what? For a handful of Niflheim civilians?

There was still time to run, to save what he cherished above all.

Just as King Regis did.

Ravus opened his eyes and said the words he had wanted to hear all those years ago. "Trust me, Julian. Aranea and I will help you - all of you. I swear it on the name of my mother, Queen Sylva Via Fleuret."

Ravus held out his human hand. Slowly, the boy inched his own hand over to grasp it.

"Now, Aranea," said Ravus.

Not knowing what she needed to do, Aranea reached out, settling a hand on Julian's forehead. She tried focusing her will on expelling the daemons, but nothing happened. Suddenly she wished she had thought to ask Lunafreya how it worked. Were there magic words or something?

Ardyn had thought Aranea, out of all of them, would be able to use this power. Lunafreya entrusted it to her. Ravus was counting on her, not to mention the poor infected Julian. Her heart thumped. She knew just how the kid felt: in over his head. No way out. Desperate. _Big damn heroes_ , she thought, and her hand began to tingle. A golden light flowed from it into Julian's forehead. Black miasma started seeping out of his eyes, nose and mouth like cigarette smoke.

When it was gone, Aranea removed her hands. Julian was shaky on his feet, but he could stand without help. 

"I can show you where everybody else is, but...I think they aren't all people anymore. That's why I ran away."

Even in the dim light, Aranea could see he was furious at himself for running.

Once again, though, Ravus knew what to say. "Do you know Tenebrae's motto? _Illi in tenebris obscurissimis stellas optime videant._ It means, 'Those in deepest darkness may best see the stars.' We shall find a way."

Julian nodded, unclenching his fists. "Okay. Follow me."

He opened the doors and they entered the school's entrance vestibule. It was nearly silent inside, with just the blinking of the emergency lighting making a regular click-click-click sound.

Ravus stole a look at Aranea - habit, perhaps, from the times he had witnessed Lunafreya's healing. She looked upset.

"What's the matter?" he asked. "Are you feeling ill after performing the healing?"

"No, that's not it," said Aranea. "It's just...well, I'm a Niff. Born and bred."

"And...?"

"I was just finishing high school when Niflheim annexed Tenebrae. I never thought about what it would be like for the people there."

Julian hung back a bit, trying to listen without being too obvious.

"Hmph," Ravus scoffed. "What sort of dog-and-pony show did your media put on? Did they tell you your soldiers were received with open arms, flowers and parades for the liberators, perhaps? Or did they tell you we were a threat to your empire that needed to be put down for the sake of national security?"

"They said there was a fire. Accidental. We had to take control of Tenebrae for their own good. And of course, they've lived happily under our protection ever since. I mean, it was kind of obvious it wasn't the truth, but...." Aranea trailed off. All of this had seemed far-off at the time, a world away from her life.

Ravus made a disgusted noise. "General Glauca attacked my home and murdered my parents for no reason other than the Lucian king happened to be there at the time. His personal grudge, backed by the Emperor's desire to conquer. Hundreds died in that 'accidental fire' and thousands more have died in other territories. Your golden empire is soaked in blood. That is the truth."

"I'm so sorry," said Aranea softly.

"Me too," said Julian.

Ravus's hard expression softened. "Well...you needn't apologize for something you didn't do. It's too much...and not enough, at the same time. Let us move on."


	4. The Deceiver

The hole in the dome closed behind Ardyn as he entered, leaving him in total darkness. "Hello?" he tried, but there was no answer. Even after a moment to adjust, he could hardly see a thing - no landmarks by which to navigate, just some vague shapes looming in the indeterminate distance.

Sighing in exasperation, he held out his umbrella as a guide and began moving slowly forward.

"Awwwww," a female voice purred. "Look at you, all helpless without us. You used to be able to see in the dark, remember?"

Ardyn felt a hand slink up his arm. Then he remembered the small camping light that Aranea had insisted they all take with them, and gave it a tap. The light flared on right into a human girl's eyes. They briefly flashed a daemonic red. She scowled.

"Rude," she said pointedly, moving to one side.

Ardyn looked the girl over in the dim light. She was dressed in a plaid schoolgirl outfit, but she had paired this with steel-toed work boots. Welder's goggles sat atop her head, just in front of two bouncy pigtails of the same platinum blonde color as Aranea.

"Let me guess: you're the sister. Edea Highwind, I presume?"

"Sharp as ever," she said with a wink.

"Very good. Since you're undoubtedly here to help, why don't you take me to Lady Lunafreya?"

"Awkward," said Edea with an exaggerated sigh. "It's like my ex brought his new girlfriend to my birthday party. In fact, he did bring her to prom last night, the total dillhole. _Ugh._ Anyway, forget her. Let's talk about us."

She twined her arm around his, more firmly this time, and began guiding Ardyn along with her. He kept his umbrella out in front nevertheless, in case she tried to steer him into a lamppost or an open sewer or somesuch.

"Together we were a match for the Gods, you know," she said, lightly tickling the palm of his hand. "Two weeks ago you could've ended all this with a snap of your fingers. Save the town, be a big hero - or a big villain, whatevs - easy peasy lemon squeezy. Admit it. You miss us."

"I'm terribly flattered. Such an elaborate setup just for yours truly. Or could it be you have some other objective?"

"We only want what we have always wanted: freedom to exist despite this burning star and its hideous light. _You're_ the one who thirsted for revenge, who wished to subjugate humankind and rule as King of Darkness. Have you truly given up on your work of centuries, so close to its fulfillment?"

"Things have changed," he said evenly.

"Mmm, it's not so surprising," said Edea, pivoting smoothly. "The Astrals gave you boons far above those of other mortals and you turned your back on them. We daemons are just the latest to find your dagger in our back. Will the Oracle be next, once you're done with her?"

"That's not how it is," he snapped before he could stop himself. Falling for these cheap tricks, how pathetic. The thought just irritated him further, but he needed to get himself back under control. Human emotions were so much more volatile than daemons', so easy to manipulate. _Even mine now_ , he thought ruefully.

Edea laughed scornfully. "Seeking redemption, is it? How trite. You used to be fun."

"So sorry to disappoint...but I confess I am curious. How did you take this girl's body without suffering ego death? Besithia was never able to solve that problem in adult subjects."

"We learned so much from you. Quite as much as you learned from us, I believe," she said. "We were never able to overpower a fully-developed ego without destroying it...but we didn't overpower you, now, did we?"

Ardyn nodded. "Ah...you made a deal with her."

"You might even call it a _covenant_ ," said the daemon with an audible grin. "Edea was consumed with fury. I showed her how to take her vengeance and she gave me a piece of her heart. Can't destroy me without killing her, too."

"Very well; I shan't. It was nice catching up. Give my regards to Uzuloth," said Ardyn casually.

There was an awkward pause. In the dim light, Ardyn could see a nice set of white teeth smiling at him.

"Were you thinking of warping out of here?" asked Edea sweetly. "Because you probably noticed that you can't."

"The Wallbreaker Wave," Ardyn muttered.

"That's right. Now come along. We have a meeting to get to."

* * *

The daemon in Edea's body led Ardyn to an ornately-decorated brick building with columns in front. He could dimly make out the words "City Hall" on the archway above heavy double doors.

She brought him inside to a conference room. On a long table, three heavy-looking silver candelabras provided the only light in the room. Around the edges of the room, Ardyn could make out a number of eyes - some human, some clearly not - watching. He recognized the insect-like rustling of daemon skin.

Edea placed a hand on Ardyn's shoulder and forced him into a chair with inhuman strength.

At the other end of the table, Lunafreya sat to one side, glaring furiously into the darkness. That was interesting. Ardyn had never seen her look so angry before. He followed her gaze to the man sitting at the head of the table: Caligo Ulldor.

"Greetings, Chancellor," said Ulldor, looking like the cat who ate the canary.

Ardyn looked up at a clock placed above Ulldor's head.

"Waiting for something?" said Ulldor. "For your little friends to arrive and save you, perhaps?"

Ardyn reached into his jacket and withdrew a silver box of cigarettes and a flip-top lighter. He took out a cigarette and tamped it on the box.

"You have until I finish this to expound upon whatever delusions of competency brought you to this point," he said. "Then I'm going to kill all of you and take Lady Lunafreya out of here."

He stuck the cigarette in his mouth and lit it, leaned back in his chair and waited expectantly.

A flicker of annoyance crossed Caligo's face, but he quickly buried it in an avalanche of laughter.

"With what, a lighter and an umbrella?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Ardyn. "I don't need the lighter."

"I must give you this, Izunia: I have never known anyone to rise so far solely on the strength of his eccentricities. Anyway, since when do you care what happens to the Oracle?"

Ulldor cast a shrewd look at Lunafreya, running an iron-gloved finger over her cheek. She did not bother to hide her disgust. She looked like she'd happily snap off his hand and feed it to him.

Ardyn leaned forward. "I know all about how you treat women, Caligo. If you harm her, you will not even live long enough to regret it."

"Allow me to ease your mind, _Ardyn_. I need you and Lady Lunafreya alive. Well, you or Lord Ravus. Either will do." He laughed again, enjoying himself. "One of you stole the crystal from His Radiance - I just haven't decided who yet. Maybe both!"

"Then it's no longer in Zegnautus Keep?" said Ardyn, eyes narrowing.

"The crystal belongs to us now," said Edea, then grinned wickedly. "That said, it'll stay in Zegnautus for now...technically speaking."

Ardyn didn't know what that meant, so he ignored her and leveled his gaze at Ulldor.

"I see. You trade the crystal to these daemons in exchange for some high-value hostages. Blame the theft on said hostages, who are then summarily executed by the crystal-bedazzled Emperor Aldercapt. And you have your choice of promotions: Chancellor or High Commander. Not bad for a one-star general."

"Don't be sour, Izunia. You know you and little orphan fancy pants didn't earn your commissions. Not like me. I've spent my life climbing the ladder. It's finally time to reap the rewards."

"For a life based entirely on treachery, I suppose this would be a fitting capstone," said Ardyn. "What do you want with the Oracle, though?"

"Oh, she's not for me. The daemons want her. I didn't ask why," said Ulldor carelessly. "I did help myself to this, though." He held up the Ring of the Lucii on a gold chain.

Ardyn burst out laughing. "Do try it," he said. "I'd love to see what body part the Kings of Yore take from you. It's different for everyone, you know."

Ulldor's eyes narrowed. Perhaps this was an insult too far.

"Then why don't we see how the Oracle takes to it?" he hissed. Roughly, he grabbed Lunafreya's hand and made to force the ring onto her finger. She tried to push his hand away, but he was too strong for her.

Frowning, Ardyn flicked the end of his cigarette away. The daemons around the room made bird-like cawing noises. Before they had a chance to move, he stood and picked up the heavy wooden chair he had been sitting in, swinging it roundhouse-style into the daemons to clear a path. He didn't have his superhuman strength or speed anymore, but he didn't need it for this. The daemons stumbled backwards, tripping over each other.

In a flash, Ardyn had moved across the room to Ulldor and hit him square in the face with the handle end of his umbrella. In shock, Ulldor dropped Lunafreya's hand and clutched his eye. Ardyn pushed him to the ground and used the umbrella to throttle him, pressing down on his windpipe as his face turned red and then purple. But he didn't have time to finish the job; the daemons had recovered and were on the move.

Lunafreya had taken the opportunity to snatch the Ring of the Lucii back and hidden behind a credenza. Whatever was about to happen, she didn't want to be in the middle of it. Peeking out from behind her shield, she watched Ardyn take apart the entire room full of daemons and daemon-infested with nothing more than his fancy umbrella. It had somehow sprouted a bayonet from the top, and he used it alternately for stabbing and bludgeoning as the situation required.

Ulldor groaned; he was nearly unconscious. Lunafreya's mind suddenly transported her back to Tenebrae, ten years previous. The Empire invaded her home, set fire to her beloved fields, murdered her mother.

Caligo Ulldor had not led the operation, but he had been there. He had terrorized Lunafreya, for no reason other than he was bigger and stronger and he could get away with it. And so, although General Glauca was the architect of the worst day of her life, Ulldor had always been the face she saw when she thought of it.

Now he was helpless, and she had all the power. She took his sword out of its scabbard and stood above him, looking down. Hands shaking, she held the blade up to his throat. His eyes were unfocused, but he could see her. Could see that she, the little girl, was about to become his undoing.

Lunafreya felt pressure on her wrist; she looked up and saw that Ardyn was holding it. His face was flushed from exertion and his amber eyes looked darker than usual in the candlelight.

"Leave the vengeance to we who already have blood on our hands, my lady," he said.

With some effort, she forced her fingers to let go of the sword and allowed Ardyn to take it out of her hand. He raised the sword to strike. Ulldor's eyes closed; he had fallen unconscious.

"Don't. Don't hurt him," she said suddenly.

"He'll only cause more trouble later," said Ardyn icily.

"You don't know that. He's helpless. Leave him be," she said, still shaking. She needed to leave this room immediately, get away from the miasma that still lingered in the air from the daemons. She hurried out the door.

After Lunafreya left, Ardyn knelt next to Ulldor. He gave him a couple of smacks on the cheeks to wake him up.

Ulldor groaned as Ardyn's face came into focus. "You don't deserve to kill the likes of me, you puffed-up parvenu," he managed.

"Parvenu. That's funny," said Ardyn, not smiling. "Lady Lunafreya has elected to spare your life, against my counsel. If you pursue this asinine scheme, our paths will cross again and I shall have no choice but to eliminate you. Or...."

He stood up, again pointing the sword at Ulldor's throat.

Coughing, Ulldor pulled himself up to a sitting position. "Or?"

"Simply tell me where the Wallbreaker is located and scurry back to Gralea. We can forget this ever happened. I'm not the type to hold a grudge." From Ulldor's angle on the floor, Izunia's eyes were shaded by his hat and his teeth flashed in the candlelight.

"You're so smart," Ulldor sneered. "Figure it out." His voice was raspy from the bruising on his windpipe.

Annoyed, Ardyn moved his hand a little so that the sword was aimed at Ulldor's good eye.

"There are so many things one can do with a sword besides killing," he said pointedly. "Someone like you knows exactly what I mean, yes?"

"All right!" Ulldor growled, holding up a hand. "It's in the high school." He had a coughing fit, rendering his words almost unintelligible.

"A fine choice," said Ardyn. He tucked Ulldor's sword into his own belt and took a quick inventory of the conference room. Aside from Ulldor and Edea, there were a handful of other daemon-infested hosts lying around. Too many for Lunafreya to try healing, he thought. If the daemons were able to bind themselves to this many humans, they would need to come up with another way of separating them.

Ardyn pulled the laces out of Edea's boots and used them to tie her hands behind her back. The daemon hissed at him, but he ignored it, prodding the girl to get up and walk out in front of him.

Outside, Lunafreya was sitting on the City Hall stairs, arms wrapped around herself, staring at her feet. Ardyn sat down next to her and peered into the darkness. A tiny flash in his peripheral vision caught his eye, and he looked over to see the Ring of the Oracles on her finger. He frowned at it, thinking.

"Take off the ring," he instructed.

"Oh..." she said, feeling lighter as soon as the Ring of the Oracles was off her finger. "That feels better. How did you know?"

"The amount of power flowing through the ring, your body, this dome...I thought it might be the cause of your fatigue. Just a theory."

Lunafreya nodded, but she didn't look much better. She was still staring at her feet.

"Am..." she began, and it took her a full minute to complete the sentence. "Am I a hypocrite?" she said at last.

The question made Ardyn smile. Although an adult, in many ways she was so very young. "My dear, why don't you extend yourself a bit of the grace that you give so freely to others?"

"I can't. I can't forgive him. And I can't forgive myself for that."

"A conundrum. There are only two options, I think, that a civilized person would find acceptable. Either we are all worthy of forgiveness or none of us are. Do you agree?"

"Yes," said Lunafreya hesitantly.

"Then it follows that if you are placing yourself in the second category...." He trailed off, leaving her to complete the thought on her own.

"Third option: I just threw up in my mouth a little," piped up Edea suddenly, from the bottom of the steps. "Corruption and purity are illusions. There is only power and weakness. You used to know that, Deceiver."

Ardyn laughed. "Do I have a new sobriquet? 'Ardyn the Deceiver'...it does have a certain charm to it. I suppose I should ask who you are, if we are to spend the evening together."

"You may refer to me as _Mhovhen the Invincible_ ," said Edea with relish.

"Oh, I doubt that very much," said Ardyn, still chuckling. "You know, the pigtails are cute. How about Mhovhen the Cuddly? Mhovhen the Sweetie-Pie?"

"Think what you will," said Mhovhen haughtily. "We have greater allies than you now. _Far_ greater."

As if on cue, a tremor shook the ground beneath them. Then another, larger this time, as if something big were moving closer.


	5. Shock and Awe

When Aranea and Ravus entered the high school gymnasium, they found hundreds of townspeople had taken shelter there. Excited murmurs spread through the crowd as they realized who had just entered.

"Ravus!" came a familiar voice. The crowd parted and Lunafreya ran to her brother. He opened his arms and wrapped her in a warm embrace.

"Lunafreya," he said, relieved. "How are you faring?"

"I'm fine," she replied. Her face grew serious. "Have you ever seen Ardyn fight?" she asked.

"Ardyn fight?" Ravus repeated blankly. "...No?"

The chancellor melted out of the shadows, smirking. "Ardyn doesn't expend energy unnecessarily. Good to see you both alive."

"Likewise," said Aranea. "What's the sitch here?"

Ardyn summed up their meeting with Caligo Ulldor, including that Ulldor had directed them here to find the Wallbreaker Wave.

"Here?" said Aranea thoughtfully. "Why put something like that in the same place citizens would be sheltering?"

"He may have been lying, of course," said Ardyn. "By the way, we found your sister. We have her in the locker room yonder."

"Why didn't you lead with that?" Aranea demanded, punching him in the arm.

Quick as a flash, Ardyn grabbed her hand. "Because she has been compromised," he said.

"Then I need to help her!" Aranea struggled, but Ardyn held her in place.

"You need to calm down, or you'll be of no use to anyone," said Ardyn firmly.

Aranea squeezed her eyes shut. "This place," she said through gritted teeth. "It's making me crazy."

"As intended," said Ardyn, loosening his grip. "Remember, the creature residing in your sister may say or do anything to upset you. You must maintain control of yourself or you cannot hope to control a daemon."

"How are you doing it?" Aranea asked him. "How are you staying so cool?"

"Practice," said Ardyn grimly.

"I was hoping for something easier," Aranea sighed. "Like drugs."

Ardyn pulled out his silver box of cigarettes and offered it to her, but she waved him off.

"No, no. You can't smoke in here. You'll set off the sprinklers. Don't ask me how I know," she said.

Ardyn shrugged and put them away. He, Aranea, and the two Fleurets went over to the locker rooms. They had cleared everyone out of one, so that Edea would be unable to speak to the townspeople. She was sitting on a bench, head down, eerily backlit by the emergency exit sign behind her.

"Edea!" said Aranea, moving to her sister's side. 

" _There is no Edea. There is only Mhovhen_ ," said the girl, in a gritty, inhuman voice.

Aranea gasped.

"Haha, psych," said Mhovhen. "She's still in here."

"Well let her go!" Aranea told it.

"Nah," said the daemon, grinning widely. "I like her. We have an understanding, she and I."

Aranea placed a hand on Edea's forehead. She looked at Ardyn and Lunafreya. "What should I do now?"

"Concentrate your will, but do not push too hard," said Lunafreya. "You're trying to guide her back to herself, not impose yourself on her." 

Lunafreya placed her own hand on top of Aranea's, to see if she could sense what was happening. Immediately, she felt a powerful burst of anger from Edea's subconscious mind.

"Do you feel that?" said Lunafreya.

"Yes," said Aranea. "How - how can we fight it?"

"Don't fight it. The anger is merely a cloak to hide her true feelings. She might be afraid, humiliated, hurt, ashamed...what do you think is the likeliest root?"

"I don't know!" Aranea cried. "Wouldn't she be afraid? Wouldn't anyone if their whole town got dragged into hell?"

"The boy," said Ardyn suddenly.

"What?" Aranea looked up at him.

"The boyfriend. She said he left her and took his new girlfriend to the dance. The same boy who ended up serving as bait for us, I believe."

"Oh," Aranea breathed. "That's how it was. I see now." She placed her hands on her sister again, closed her eyes, and concentrated.

Lunafreya again placed her hand on Aranea's and felt a complex web of emotions. This time, Aranea was able to move past the anger and into a flood of hurt. Lunafreya and Aranea felt the younger girl's pain and envy as if it were their own. But there was something else lurking there, something Edea would give anything to defend.

Lunafreya removed her hand. Aranea's eyes opened. "What are you doing? Can't you help?"

"I think...she won't let me in that far," said Lunafreya, shaking her head. "She is deeply ashamed of something she did. She will not reveal it to a stranger. It must be you, Aranea - and you must receive it without judgement or she will choose the daemons to protect her."

Ardyn and Ravus stood to one side, watching the spectacle unfolding in front of them.

"This is a most peculiar kind of healing," said Ravus, eyeing Ardyn. He wondered what sorts of things Lunafreya had seen in Ardyn's mind.

Just for a moment, Ardyn let his guard down and smiled at Lunafreya fondly. "Her technique is not to fight the lion, but rather to coax the thorn from his paw. Truly extraordinary."

Affection for his sister filled Ravus, but at the same time, he felt a sharp spike of jealousy. Yes, Lunafreya was extraordinary. He had always thought so. Did anyone ever give a thought to _his_ extraordinary qualities? Never.

Ravus's mind was wandering. He did not notice Ardyn watching him closely.

Suddenly, Edea convulsed under Aranea's hands. She opened her mouth wide and vomited a snake-like creature onto the ground. Ardyn and Ravus readied their swords. The snake kept coming and coming until it was nearly eight feet long and covered in sharp spikes.

The snake reared up and hissed. Its tail flicked back and forth. Perhaps because he was feeling nettled already, Ravus was in no mood to dance with this creature. He stalked up to the snake and grabbed it around the neck with his magitek gauntlet, controlling its head so it couldn't bite him. 

Immediately, the other seven feet of snake began whipping around like mad. Aranea hopped up and stabbed her polearm into its tail, driving it into the ground like a spike, pinning the snake to the ground. 

Ardyn aimed a sword slash just under Ravus's arm, slicing the snake clean through. The severed body fell to the ground, limp, before dissolving into miasma. Ravus tossed the head away with a "Tsch."

That's when Aranea noticed that another creature had exited with the snake. It was smallish, with bat-like wings and sharp teeth. An imp or goblin, perhaps. Rather than fighting as daemons generally did, it was simply watching with big round eyes.

Then the creature saw that Aranea had noticed it. It flapped its bat wings and rose up into the air just above her head.

"Mhovhen the Invincible!" it cried, and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

Ravus arched an eyebrow. "Well, that's one way to achieve immortality."

Aranea cradled her sister in her arms. "What now? We can't just leave the town like this...even if we knew how to get out."

The public address system crackled to life, as if to respond. "Countrymen, this is General Caligo Ulldor," said the voice. "Earlier today, your Emperor ordered the creation of a defensive dome around your town. Fulginia has been infiltrated by traitors."

"Defensive my butt," said Aranea, making a face. "That jowly bag of expired ham farts!"

"Calling all patriots," Ulldor continued over the loudspeaker, "If you see Ardyn Izunia, Aranea Highwind, or Ravus Nox Fleuret, they are to be apprehended immediately. They may be holding Lady Lunafreya hostage. Take her alive!"

"Encouraging ordinary civilians to attack trained combatants," said Ravus, flexing his magitek arm. "Does he truly care nothing for his own people?"

Ravus moved over to the only other door, the entrance into the gym. He opened it a crack and peered out. The townspeople were murmuring excitedly. Some looked confused, others angry, and some afraid. In a few, he could see the telltale glint of red that signaled a daemon possession. One of these whistled to focus attention on himself.

"We have the traitors right here!" he said, pointing at the locker room. " _Let's get them!_ "

"This is stupid!" another voice piped up from the crowd. "They're trying to help us. Ulldor's just feeding us the usual self-serving lies."

Other voices raised in agreement and disagreement. Hundreds of pairs of eyes - human and non - turned towards Ravus. As part of his military life, Ravus had been in many hair-raising situations, but this one sent a chill up his spine like no other. He didn't wait to see what the mob would choose. Immediately, he ran to the nearest bank of lockers.

"Izunia!" he said sharply, and Ardyn joined him. Together, they hoisted the lockers over to the door, blocking it, and then leaned against the lockers to reinforce the barrier.

Lunafreya ran over to the exit door and tried it. "Locked!" she exclaimed, pushing on it harder. The door didn't budge.

The murmurs on the other side of the door rose to a dull roar punctuated by angry yelling. There was pounding on the door, just a few at first, then more frequently and more insistent.

Ardyn turned his gaze upwards, staring contemplatively at the ceiling.

"No atheists in foxholes, eh?" Ravus quipped. "You think the gods would give us a hand?"

Responding with a glare of eloquent disdain, Ardyn moved smoothly away from the lockers.

"What the hell are you doing?" Aranea said, taking his place. Even with her and Ravus pushing, the lockers were beginning to tilt precariously.

Ardyn hopped lightly atop a nearby bench and took his lighter out of his pocket. He flicked it and held the flame up above his head like a torch. For several beats, the others all stared blankly at him. He stared impassively back, still holding the lighter up.

Then the sprinklers went off.

The emergency lights started flashing. A siren sounded. The pounding on the door stopped abruptly and the voices on the other side sounded both outraged and confused.

Ardyn hopped down and strolled out the now-unlocked exit door. The others followed him, Ravus closing the door behind him and barricading it with a nearby trash can.

Outside, it was still dark and the air had grown stale and humid. The emergency lights flashed and the siren sounded, but not as loudly.

"Did you know that would open the doors?" Lunafreya asked, bewildered.

Ardyn shrugged as if this were obvious. "Of course. Would you expect a fire alarm to lock people inside a burning building?"

"Man, I did _not_ think I'd be ending this day running from an angry mob in my own hometown," said Aranea, pressing her fingers against her temples to ward off a tension headache.

Ardyn turned his unsettling yellow eyes on her. "It is the same people throwing roses at the hero's feet and stones at the villain's head. It has always been thus, Dragoon."

Lunafreya laid a hand on Aranea's shoulder. "At this point, I'm afraid we need to fall back. There are too many fully in thrall to the daemons."

"You're right," Aranea agreed. "We can't stay here. But we're back to square one. How can we get out?"

"Give it a minute," said Ardyn. "Then we'll know if Ulldor was telling the truth about the Wallbreaker."

"How?!" Aranea demanded. She was losing her patience with Ardyn's cryptic commentary. But he didn't answer, just gazed up into the sky as if waiting for something to happen there.

Ravus looked out into the gloom, illuminated only slightly by the blinking emergency lights. "Where are we, anyway?" he asked.

"The stadium," said Edea. They were the first words she had spoken since the daemon left her body. "Must be. That's where the locker room door leads to."

Suddenly, a row of red eyes lit up in the darkness. Then another, higher this time. Then another and another until there were thousands of them.

"Magitek troopers!" cried Ravus. "How can there be so many?"

"They're on the bleachers," said Edea, sounding vaguely impressed. "We're big on sports here," she added.

Ravus's magitek arm crackled with electricity as he warmed it up. If he was doomed to death fighting for his sister's life, so be it.

"Stay your hand, Lord Ravus," said Ardyn calmly. "If they had been instructed to kill us, they'd be trying already."

"Somehow that doesn't make me feel any better," said Ravus through gritted teeth.

Behind them, there was fresh banging on the door. The mob had broken through.


	6. Those Who Are About to Die Salute You

Suddenly, the soupy darkness was illuminated by a ring of heavy-duty spotlights. They were indeed on a carefully-tended athletic field, and the bleachers were filled with thousands of magitek troopers standing at the ready.

"Big on sports, eh? That looks to be Ulldor's full brigade," said Ardyn. They all paused to let the enormity of the situation sink in. "Well then, follow me."

He strode confidently and unhurriedly out into the field. Ravus and Aranea's military instincts objected, but before they could say anything, Lunafreya had followed him out.

After a short distance, a laugh rang out over the loudspeakers surrounding the stadium. Ardyn ignored it completely, moving towards some point known only to himself.

"HA HA HA HAAAAAA!" the voice boomed, starting to sound slightly desperate.

Ardyn finally stopped, turned around, and gazed upwards at the little booth where the sound originated. The angry mob broke through the door and poured out onto the field, making Aranea instantly grateful they had put some distance between them. Instinctively, she moved her sister behind her and braced for battle.

"Well! Well! Well! Here you all are, just as I planned! You fell right into my trap!" There was no mistaking the gloating voice: it was Caligo Ulldor. "There's nowhere to run. Nowhere to hide. Come quietly - or even better, _don't!_ " He laughed again, the sound resonating all around the stadium.

Ardyn swept off his hat and bowed. As he rose, he said, " _Morituri te salutant_. Those who are about to die, salute you."

"Whatever is that supposed to mean?" said Ulldor, sounding amused.

Lunafreya stepped forward, her eyes steely. She couldn't see Ulldor, up in the commentator booth, but she directed her gaze at him regardless. "It means you deserve everything that's coming to you," she shouted.

Ravus took his eyes off the troopers to look at her. She looked furious, but he couldn't tell whether she really had any idea what Izunia was planning.

"Troops! Attack!" Ulldor commanded.

The magitek troops did not move.

There was a short pause, as Ulldor struggled to understand where he'd gone wrong.

" _Seize them!_ " Ulldor shrieked, enraged. "Fifty thousand Gil for each of their heads!"

The magitek troops still didn't move, but the mob swarmed towards them.

Ardyn shouted something in a language none of the others recognized.

Although it sounded like gibberish to the others, the magitek troops responded to Ardyn's command, leaping down from the bleachers and forming a wall in front of the daemonic mob.

"Why didn't you tell us you could do that?!" Ravus demanded, outraged.

"And spoil the surprise?" said Ardyn, grinning widely. "Anyway, we're safe. They'll only respond to me now."

The loudspeaker had gone conspicuously silent. Ardyn shouted another command at the troopers, and some of them split off to march up the bleachers towards Ulldor in his booth.

" _How_ did you do that?" Ravus revised his question slightly.

"Simple. He guided the magitek research from the beginning," said Edea, regarding Ardyn warily. "And made sure there was a backdoor so it couldn't be used against him."

Ardyn looked at Edea closely. "I think I know you. Have we met?"

Edea opened her mouth to answer, but she didn't have time. 

A high-pitched noise like a siren rose in the stadium. It seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. It got louder and louder, and as it gained intensity, the stadium walls started to vibrate. At the same time, the magitek troops stopped moving, as if their batteries had died.

The mob of villagers stopped fighting and clapped their hands over their ears in agony, as did Ravus. Lunafreya knelt next to him and held his face in her hands. She tried to ask what was wrong, but the sound was deafening and he couldn't speak regardless.

Daemons started emerging from the townspeople. A number of them were destroyed on contact with the powerful stadium lights, but the larger ones began pushing through the now-immobile wall of troopers. Ardyn was staring intently at the sky again. Aranea again braced herself for fighting; then she saw her sister point upwards. The darkness above their heads was cracking like old plaster, allowing tiny spiderwebs of light to shine through.

Ardyn drew Caligo Ulldor's sword and held it ready. He didn't have to wait long before the daemons were upon them. They were even more irate than usual, angry at having been forced out of their hosts into the uncomfortably bright lights. The sound didn't seem to bother them, which was more than Ardyn could say for himself. He was almost glad he had the daemons as a distraction, because the screeching noise was becoming unbearable.

The daemons were naturally tougher than humans, but Ardyn knew they had a particular weakness: they relied on their strength too much. They didn't train. They didn't practice. They felt themselves above mere mortals, and they were usually right.

But not always.

In a moment, he knew, the force field containing his power would disappear. When that happened, he would be able to destroy them all. In the meantime, all he had to do was hold them off.

He glanced behind him and saw that Aranea was herding the others towards an exit door. He was not surprised to find himself standing alone against an army; he had expected as much, and if they had stayed with him he would have told them to leave. Lunafreya must be protected at all costs.

But, if truth be told, he was a little disappointed.

* * *

Aranea saw the daemons emerge from the townsfolk, and the magitek soldiers crap out at the worst possible time. Ardyn didn't seem worried, but he was the only one. She clapped Lunafreya and Edea on the arm and pointed, not even trying to talk over the noise coming from all around them.

Lunafreya and Aranea got on either side of Ravus and lifted his arms over their shoulders, dragging him away. Edea waved, showing them the way to the exit.

"Goddamn...football...." Aranea huffed, as she shuffled across the enormous field towards the outside wall. Edea was already struggling with the locked exit door. Aranea gave it a rocket-powered kick and it flew inward.

She and Lunafreya managed to get Ravus through the door without difficulty. Most of the daemons were focused on Ardyn, who was somehow holding them all off single-handedly. Aranea had not asked him to do so, and she certainly wouldn't have blamed him if he had come with them to escape. Then again, he didn't look like he needed help.

"He is _nuts_ ," she murmured to herself. "Who knew?"

"I did," said Edea. "Did you know there are human beings in those people-shaped suits of armor?"

"Actually I did," Aranea couldn't help correcting her, "but what does that have to do with anything?"

"I protested the Chancellor's office over the magitek program. That's how he knows me," her sister explained. "He stood up on his balcony drinking wine. Seemed to enjoy how worked up we were getting. Now he seems...different."

"You have no idea," said Aranea, thinking of the daemons that swarmed out of him. She eyed her little sister and thought of what she had seen in the younger girl's mind. How much of that was human and how much influenced by the daemons?

Ravus gave a low moan. "Can't...move...." he managed, looking down at his magitek gauntlet.

Lunafreya brushed his hair back from his face, shushing him gently.

As Aranea debated whether she should help Ardyn fight off the daemons or help Ravus get farther away, the noise stopped and something strange happened: the magitek troopers, as well as Ravus's arm, started moving again.

* * *

"Where are we?"

"What happened?"

"Why is it so bright?"

"It's not bright...it's dark."

"Are those...daemons?"

Ardyn heard voices around him, a multitude of them, and because he was distracted by the daemons trying to kill him, he at first thought they belonged to the townspeople. Then he realized these people were speaking the tongue of ancient Solheim, a language that had died out thousands of years ago.

There was no time to think about what this could mean. He shouted another command at them.

At once, the magitek troopers began attacking the daemons.

Ardyn stopped to catch his breath. The troopers were holding off the daemons well enough, although they weren't fighting as well as they had before. They did not move in the methodical, robotic way that they usually did, but in the same way that human soldiers moved. They hesitated and flinched when struck, things mindless drones never did.

The daemons seemed to be everywhere - why were there so many of them? Ardyn was sure there weren't that many townspeople - and he had none of his supernatural powers to draw upon.

_I've over-relied on the daemon's power_ , he thought, _just as they do_.

They were all around him, slashing at him with their talons. Too many to hold off on his own. From far away, he heard Lunafreya scream. He turned his head towards her and in that moment a daemon found its opportunity.

* * *

Ravus tried to fight it. At first he thought he could force the daemons back into their little metal box, where they powered the gauntlet that gave him super-strength and electrical magic. But their power grew as the horrible noise increased, and soon he realized they could not be tucked away. They would steal his body and Ravus Nox Fleuret would be gone.

He gazed into his sister's eyes. She was concerned, but not panicked yet. She didn't know what was coming. "Cut it off," he tried to say, but couldn't form the words. "I can't move," he tried.

Starting in his left arm and radiating out from there, he could feel something foreign writhing through his body. 

Ravus Nox Fleuret blacked out and something else took over.

* * *

The oily black miasma took over Ravus faster than Lunafreya could have imagined. It washed over him, and at the same time seemed to flow from inside him. His eyes bled with it and a horn sprouted from his left ear and quickly overcame most of his head.

He lurched to his feet. Lunafreya screamed.

At the same time, the horrible noise stopped and the dome over the town cracked wide and disappeared. It was late afternoon and golden sunlight flooded the stadium, instantly dispatching all the daemons that it touched. The light did not affect Ravus, however. Aranea put herself between Lunafreya and the monster, holding her spear at the ready.

The monster used its still-human hand to hold up a sword. If Aranea had known more about history, she might have known that this was the Sword of the Father, one of the Royal Arms of Lucis, and that Ravus had taken it from King Regis's body during the invasion of Insomnia. However, she was more interested in preventing it from slicing anyone in half.

After contemplating the sword for a moment, the monster turned and jumped clear over the wall.

Blinking, Aranea ran after it and leaped up high to see where it had gone. It was loping off towards the western horizon, not even looking back.

Returning to the ground, Aranea explained what she had seen to Lunafreya. The princess shook her head numbly and they headed over to see how Ardyn was doing. He was sitting on the ground holding his head in his hands. As they came closer, they could see that he was bleeding profusely.

Aranea and Lunafreya moved closer to kneel next to Ardyn. When they were within arm's reach, two swords popped out of nowhere and hovered menacingly at their throats.

"It's Luna and Aranea," said Lunafreya gently.

Aranea stayed still and eyed the spectral weapons. They vanished as suddenly as they had appeared.

Ardyn reluctantly moved his hands to reveal a nasty claw-slash across his forehead. Instinctively, Aranea reached out and traced the line of the wound with her fingers, thinking about the first aid kit in her ship. To her astonishment, her fingers started glowing, just as they had when she had touched Julian earlier. Ardyn's wounds sealed themselves up neatly under her ministration.

Ardyn pulled a handkerchief out of a pocket in his jacket and wiped the blood off his forehead, then ran his fingers over the place where he'd been struck.

"Well done indeed," he said. "Are you sure you aren't some kind of princess?"

Aranea laughed loudly, snorting at the end. "Yeah, pretty sure. Thanks for that, though. I needed the laugh."

She wiped away tears of mirth and got to her feet, helping him up too.

Edea was trying to talk to a headless magitek trooper.

Seconds after thinking it, Aranea rolled her eyes at her own flight of fancy. Of course it had a _head_ \- it was just missing its helmet, and she had never seen one without a helmet. From her observations, removing the helmet exposed light to the daemon inside, and generally they "poofed" just like other daemons, leaving an empty shell. She knew that they had human bodies at some point, but she wasn't clear where that body went when you killed one.

In any case, these troopers looked to be 100% human, if weirdly identical to one another. Edea was trying to talk to them, but she wasn't getting very far.

"What's your name?" Edea tried asking one.

The young man shrugged. "Name?" he repeated, as if he had never heard the word before.

"What's wrong with them?" Edea exclaimed in frustration.

"Nothing is wrong with them," said Ardyn. "Do you name a cow before you make a steak out of it?"

"Even if they don't have names, they're still people," insisted Edea.

Ardyn mopped more blood off his forehead. "They have human genetic material, yes, but calling them 'people' is a bit of a stretch."

"Takes one to know one," said Edea acidly.

Ardyn's eyes narrowed at that, and Aranea felt the need to step between them.

"Edea," said Aranea in a well-practiced big-sister voice. "This isn't the time. He saved your life just now."

"Thrice!" Ardyn added, a bit petulantly.

"At least," Aranea agreed. "Anyway, how did this happen?"

"I suspect it was related to the sound we all heard," Ardyn said. "Perhaps a novel interaction between the two fields - the Wallbreaker Wave and the one creating the dome. I thought that when the water from the sprinklers reached the Wallbreaker cabinet that it would cease, but this...well, it exceeded my expectations."

"The cabinet?" asked Aranea blankly.

"Somewhere in that building," said Ardyn, pointing at the school, "Is a box full of electronics that powered the dome over this town. A box that isn't waterproof. Q.E.D.," he added, waving his hand at the sky.

"Ardyn," said Lunafreya. The others turned to her. She had been so quiet they'd almost forgotten she was standing there. "Can you command these soldiers to do anything?"

"Of course. Would you keep them as a personal guard? Use them for further study? Send them after Ulldor?"

Lunafreya shook her head. "We need to go soon. Please tell them to protect this town and help the people in any way they can."

Ardyn looked as if he wanted to say something, but thought better of it. He whistled and the former magitek troopers lined up obediently and listened to him speak his strange language. When he was finished, they saluted then jogged off in several directions. Most of them went towards the townspeople, who were huddled at one end of the field.

"I had no idea they were capable of a complex task like that," said Aranea in wonder.

"They may not be," said Ardyn pointedly.

"Perhaps..." said Lunafreya, setting a hand on Edea's arm, "They could use a leader."

Edea stared at her in astonishment. "Me?"

"I think they could use someone to speak for them. Someone who sees them as more than tools. An advocate, perhaps. Could you do that?" Lunafreya asked. 

"I...I think so," said Edea, warming to the idea.

Aranea's ship zoomed in from above. "Howzit, Lady A," came Bigg's amplified voice from the ship. She waved at him to land, which he was easily able to do on the enormous field. The back hatch opened invitingly.

"What say we get out of here and have a couple of stiff drinks," Aranea suggested.

"Do you deem this situation stable?" Lunafreya asked Aranea.

"About as stable as it ever is," said Aranea. "I don't think there's much more we can do here."

Lunafreya nodded blankly. Aranea knew the look on her face well. She had seen it in battle, when she lost squaddies. Inside, Lunafreya had already converted fear for her brother into grief at his loss. She was in the process of folding these feelings up and placing them in a coffin, to be accessed later, if at all.

"Very well. Then let us go to Gralea." Lunafreya's face hardened with determination and resolve. Setting aside her humanity for the sake of the mission.

Impulsively, Aranea threw her arms around Luna and hugged her tight. "We'll find him. Okay?" she said firmly.

Aranea glanced over Lunafreya's shoulder at the commentary booth where Ulldor was probably still hiding, the snake. Now, when he was separated from his troops, would be the perfect time to eliminate him.

She saw Ulldor run out of the booth and jump into a waiting airship, flying away as fast as the jets could take him. Aranea frowned, but she had made her choice. Ulldor would get what was coming to him; she would see to that personally if she had to. Luna was more important right now.


	7. What Comes Next

In the depths of the dark crystal, Uzuloth the Usurper waited to receive the reports of his vassals. They were agitated, terrified of his wrath, as well they should be. They thought they had failed, and Uzuloth did not tolerate failure. So here they were, cringing and bowing, begging for their pathetic lives.

True, they had lost the town, but it was little more than a test bed. Uzuloth was really after information, the only consistent source of power in the universe. And he had learned much. The Oracle and the Deceiver had managed to surprise him, but their tricks would only work once. Now he knew what they were truly capable of, and could plan accordingly.

"Silence!" Uzuloth commanded. "Your minds have been contaminated by these mortal creatures, seeing only the narrow band of time they experience in their short lives. We are daemons! We have existed since the beginning of time and we will see the end of the universe. What is a single day on this accursed orb?"

Uzuloth continued, "Events are unfolding as I have foreseen. The Deceiver is a powerful foe, but hubris will undo him now as it did before. Already he has led the Oracle astray from her ordained path. The Astrals stir in uprising. They will not aid their wayward children... _but we will_."

There was muttering amongst the lesser daemons.

The daemon licked its chops with two of its tongues. One of the traits it absorbed from its human host was a sense of irony. The other daemons did not appreciate it, barely even comprehended it, but they did not need to. They only needed to obey.

* * *

Lunafreya, Ardyn, Aranea, Biggs, and Wedge stood on the outskirts of Gralea, staring up at the enormous hole in the skyline. The hole where Zegnautus Keep used to be, but wasn't anymore.

"What does it mean?" asked Lunafreya at last.

"Nothing good," said Aranea grimly.

"Let's go back up," said Ardyn abruptly. They all piled back onto Aranea's ship and rose into the sky.

"Take us starboard," Ardyn instructed Biggs. "Slowly now. I'd like to get a look at the ground here."

As Biggs carefully maneuvered the ship, Lunafreya and Aranea joined Ardyn at the window, peering out to see what he was looking at.

Lunafreya stared in horror as a pattern emerged in the snowfield outside Gralea. An enormous footprint, then another, and another, trailed off to the north.

"Shiva," she whispered softly. She knew that the Empire had killed one of Shiva's forms, leaving her colossal body lying in Ghorovas Rift. That was the only thing she knew of large enough to leave footprints like this.

"I'd no idea they would be so aggressive," Ardyn mused. "It's quite unlike them to move so quickly."

"They wouldn't attack Gralea," said Aranea, trying to convince herself.

"It is unlikely," said Ardyn, lighting a cigarette. "Why bother with that, when most of Gralea is infected already?"

"Dammit!" Aranea swore, kicking the side of the ship. "We need that crystal back!"

"We need to find Noctis," said Lunafreya decisively. They all looked at her. " _Right now_."


End file.
